If you can’t get enough of Harry Potter this weekend …

Jim SheltonSpecial to the Post-Chronicle

Published
8:00 pm EDT, Monday, July 11, 2011

NEW YORK CITY — Times Square might have to be renamed Hogwarts West.

Not only is the final Harry Potter movie set to debut this weekend, and not only is Harry Potter himself, actor Daniel Radcliffe, starring on Broadway in “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” but a trove of wizardly treasures now has fans entranced on West 44th Street.

After you’ve seen “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” you can check out “Harry Potter: The Exhibit,” at the Discovery Times Square museum through Sept. 5, which features potions, robes and magic wands galore. There are even some shrieking mandrakes for your listening pleasure.

“We want people to feel they’ve actually visited Hogwarts and stepped into the world of Harry Potter,” says Eddie Newquist, chief creative officer of Global Experience Specialists, the company that created the exhibit. “We pulled out all the stops.”

A recent visit illustrates just how immersive the experience is.

Black-robed docents, all with British accents, usher visitors inside. One of them uses a Sorting Hat to predict which Hogwarts’ house is the favorite of several young guests on the tour.

Then comes a dazzling, eight-screen display of key scenes from the Harry Potter movies, and you’re sent down a dark hallway lined with magical portraits.

The rooms have the feel of a haunted castle, evoking the vibe of author J.K. Rowling’s wildly popular books. You see young Harry’s original eyeglasses and wand, Professor Snape’s robes, the Marauder’s Map from “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” an invisibility cloak and various cups and saucers from Professor Trelawney’s divination classroom.

Over at another display, 30-year-old Holly Neibaur of Saratoga Springs, Utah, and her mom, Terry Neibaur, fix their gaze on a Defense Against the Dark Arts exam.

“When ‘Deathly Hallows Part 1’ came out, we went to a marathon and watched 1,000-plus minutes of Harry Potter,” Terry Neibaur explains.

The exhibit includes more than 200 items taken right from the sets of the movies: a bright blue Cornish Pixie from “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” a centaur from “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” a flying key from “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”

Detail items are everywhere, from front pages of The Daily Prophet (“The Wizard World’s Beguiling Broadsheet of Choice”) to a table of magical mandrake plants that cry out when you pull them out of their pots.

Room after room holds familiar sights for fans. There are Quidditch World Cup uniforms, floating candles in the Hogwarts Great Hall, and Albus Dumbledore’s pet phoenix, Fawkes.

Emma Bates, 11, and Hazel Hutchins, 14, of New York City are in awe examining it all. Not only have these girls read the books and seen the films, but they’ve also had “Harry Potter”-themed sleepovers and given each other wizard tests.

“I was Charms and Transfigurations,” Hazel says.

“I was Divination and Muggles Studies,” Emma says.

Clearly, for Emma, Hazel, and everyone here, Harry Potter represents something more than a fun fictional character. He’s a cultural touchstone for an entire generation of parents and kids.

“Harry Potter has always been a big thing in my childhood,” says Emily Cole, 13, of Simsbury. “I grew up reading the books and seeing the movies.”